More Noise From The Flotsam

Of all the refugees from the Avignon Presidency who have not had the common decency to slink away in shame at what they helped do to America, Michael Gerson always has ranked among the most insufferable. He was the one tasked with sewing the religious filigree on all the previous administration's worst excesses, both here and overseas. He was the one who talked the baby-talk to a nation that was being lied into a war and swindled out of its democratic patrimony. He was the Infantilizer In Chief, the nanny sent out into the national nursery by John Yoo. And when everything went to shit, as it inevitably was going to do since Gerson's ultimate boss was as dumb as a stump and the men around him often sociopaths, Gerson bailed and found a place waiting at Fred Hiatt's House Of Failures, where he now apparently writes his columns in Gerber's.

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His latest takes some of his fellow Republicans to task for unkind things they have said about the surveillance state and its various applications. But, first, Gerson makes sure that his table is still waiting at the Heritage Foundation, and that he will not be slapped around too hard at CPAC next year.

Let me stipulate that the IRS targeting of tea party groups is deeply disturbing and Eric Holder's Justice Department is politicized, swaggering and incompetent. Distrust of government is deep in the American DNA, and the Obama administration has often managed to justify it.

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Was he deeply disturbed when the administration for which he worked actually audited the NAACP? And for a former Bush administration lie-slinger to express concern about a "politicized" Justice Department, well, David Iglesias must still be laughing at that one. Swaggering? Where was Gerson when Karl Rove was demanding the firing of U.S. Attorneys? Incompetent? Alberto Gonzales must have scared him to death. Has Gerson gone through that Eternal Sunshine thing?

Some libertarians and populist conservatives are not merely attacking Obama; they are slandering U.S. intelligence services. There is no evidence, or even a serious allegation, that the NSA has made political use of data it has gathered. This is not a rogue operation. The NSA, with the permission of a court and under the supervision of Congress, built a searchable digital database. Listening in on phone calls still requires a warrant, based on probable cause.

Say anything you want about Eric Holder, or the president, for that matter, but don't be slandering the delicate souls at the NSA. Up with that, he will not put. But Gerson's not finished. Time for history to get put into the shredder.

And larger things are at stake. Questioning the legitimacy of our government is the poisoning of patriotism. It is offensive for the same reasons it was offensive when elements of the left, in the 1960s and 1970s, talked of the American "regime." Because it distorts the United States into something unrecognizable in order to advance a partisan ideology. Because this is still the "last best hope of earth," not a police state. Because Americans have fought and died for this country, and to turn on it in this way is noxious. It is dishonest. And it is dishonorable.

This crap didn't start with the Weathermen, Dave. It started with the Birchers and Pat McCarran and McCarthy. It started with the resistance to the New Deal in the 1930's. What did the highly successful alliance between conservatism, modern Republicanism, and the remnants of American apartheid do if it didn't "question the legitimacy of our government" in places like Little Rock, and Oxford, and Birmingham?

"Questioning the legitimacy of our government" is why we had a Goldwater campaign, which is why we have the modern conservative movement, which is why we had Ronald ("Government is the problem.") Reagan, which is why you have a fking job. You are only now noticing that people on your side have been talking like Weathermen recently. Here's a tip, Dave. The Left never elected Bernadine Dohrn to the U.S. Senate. Your side's got Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, and I guarantee you a lot more to follow, It's a little late to decide you don't have the belly for what really gave you a career.